Hello,
I have been taking .25mg of Xanax for about 15 years 1Xdaily at night only for sleeping. At this dosage, is there a need to wean off? And if so, what would that schedule be? It is difficult to get smaller than .25mg.
thanks for any reply

The following user gives a hug of support to montana55:Phoenix (11-26-2012)

I have tapered off Xanax myself after using it for 10 years or so. I can share what worked for me.

First off, while your dosage is small, I would suggest not to try cold turkey coming off at all. Xanax is a powerful drug and if the body has been used to receiveing it for such a long time, you definitely need to taper. I used the 5-10% rule when coming off of it. This means you never cut your dose more than that and that you stay at the cut dose for about two weeks before lowering it again. Sometimes we might feel ready after 10 days, sometimes it might be 3 weeks. Learn to listen to your body and only make cuts when feeling leveled out again.

I started off at 3 mg (1 mg three times a day) when I began to taper. Sometimes it was just a matter of breaking pills, but often it meant crushing them and eyeballing the dose. I always saved any crushed leftovers towards another dose.

It took me 6-7 months to get completely off, but in retrospect, I really should have taken more time. Measure in progress,not time. :-)

Give a holler if I can answer any questions.

Hugs
reach

The hardest part is probably not rushing it! Coming off needs to be slow and steady. Especially at the end.

The following user gives a hug of support to reachout:Phoenix (11-26-2012)

The Following User Says Thank You to reachout For This Useful Post:Phoenix (11-26-2012)

Thanks for the info. It is difficult because I have the 1mg pills. Usually I break them in half and then halve those to get my quarter dose. Most of the time I get less than 1/4...question is, how to tell 10% of that tiny quarter of a pill?
Thanks again,
M

Montana, it is really merely a matter of judgement getting that 10% from a crushed quarter tablet. We hope to be in the ballpark when we do it. Although not exact science, it did work for me pretty well. I would crush the tab and spread out the crumbs and then try to measure the portion out.

I would also suggest that you start moving the dose away from bedtime little by little. In 15-20 minute intervals. At this point, the brain is dependent on the Xanax to sleep and needs to be retrained. My doctor had me take Melatonin 3mg for sleep. It is a natural product. Melatonin is what the brain produces to ready itself for sleep. When we use Xanax for that job, the natural Mealtonin productions totally slows down. Eventually, I did not need even the Melatonin at all and can now just fall asleep.